Darned Copy Protection, ruining my viewing experience!

[ehmjay]

hello everyone.

i dont know if i can even ask this question but im going to try anyways. i've lived with it for a year but enough is enough! im fed up with the darned copy protection on dvds because its ruining my viewing experience. whenever i watch a movie on my tv it fades in and out and in and out. thankfully it really just turns up the brightness for some movies but other movies are just plain unwatchable. im not doing anything illegal. im just using a really old tv so i have to have the dvd player go into my receiver (a smart idea anyways) and take the output of the receiver into my tv. my question is this. is there anyway to get around this annoying fading. and bear in mind i cant just plug the dvd player directly into my tv. its too old of a tv for that.

thanks a bunch.

[JamieBecks23]

is it going thru a vcr at all? plug the dvd straight into the tv

[BJ_M]

its your tv - not the dvd ... turn off your automatic gain control ..

some tvs you cant

[JamieBecks23]

oops i dint read the whole post

[bazooka]

You could buy a audio-video cable to coaxial cable adapter which should do the trick.

I think they run about $20.

[solarfox]

There are two ways: You can either try to find a hacked/patched firmware for your particular DVD player which disables Macrovision, or you can try a "video stabilizer" that plugs in between the DVD player's output and the input of whatever it's currently plugged into. (You can find these stabilizers all over the internet; just Google up "video stabilizer".)

[ehmjay]

well this tv is about 20 years old so thats part of my problem. i have it fed into my receiver (which is subsequently fed into my tv) which allows me to switch between my vcr, nintendo gamecube and dvd player. thats what makes this so frusterating.

[Shocker Milwaukee]

edit

[akrako1]

Try visiting a Radio Shack. They've got all the connectors/atachments you need to connect all your devices up directly to your tv - with switches to change inputs. You'll probably actually have to get up off your ass and flip the switch though... sorry...

[BJ_M]

listen people -- a 20 year old tv not going to be effected by macrovision .. he said his contrast keeps changing --

that is a function of the AGC found on all TVs then ..

turn it off or buy a new tv ...



i could be wrong - but i bet that is it .. unless you DID conect through a vcr , but really old vcrs didnt have macrovision either .. (or some later ones like necs)

[BJ_M]

i might be totally wrong also

[johns0]

You could buy a audio-video cable to coaxial cable adapter which should do the trick.

I think they run about $20.

You have to go with that advice cause thats mv for sure showing up.

[wayne421]

Not sure how weird this sounds, but is it possible that his receiver is passing the Macrovision along to the TV? I think of it being similar to a VCR's aux input, which passes the Macrovision along also via the video input.

I agree with the poster above - go to Radio Shack and buy a converter box that can take video/audio inputs and modulate them as a coaxial output. This will allow you to connect it directly to the TV.

If the movies look okay viewing them in this manner, it may be the receiver that's having issues.

All this is plausible, assuming that the modulator box doesn't pass on the Macrovision as well. :P

W

[BJ_M]

no one is paying attention

[ehmjay]

well its a sony receiver thats about 6-8 years old so im sure its picking up the macrovision. and i dont think this tv has an auto gain controll. perhaps i shall take a photo of it so people can check it out.

[BJ_M]

all 20year old tvs had it .. everyone

[lgh529]

Hello! Is anyone listening to BJ_M?

The problem is not copy protection, the problem is the TV. TV's were built to last 15 years. If yours is 20 then consider yourself lucky. TV Manufacturers are required (at least they used to be) list the manufactured date on the back. You can look it up if you want.

Go buy a new TV.

There is not gadget or gizmo that will fix this problem unless you can disable the AGC in your TV; this of course would be rare since most TV's will not let you do that. Even if you could disable it, it would probably make things worse.

[ehmjay]

im lost. because this ONLY HAPPENS when i play certain dvds. everything else is fine. so dont tell me the tv is broken. its not! it has to do with dvds. infact my other dvd player upstairs is the exact same. plugged into the receiver then plugged into the tv (which is not that old) and i have the same problem. this is clearly a macrovision problem.

[BJ_M]

sure helps when you give ALL the information instead of guessing ...

then it is not just fading in and out but the colors are changing also ... if macrovision ..


next time -- give all the info the first time please

[ehmjay]

woah calm down. anyways the colours arent fading. basically it looks like someone cranks up the contrast and cranks it down. so does anyone else have any tips?

[lgh529]

I'll bet you its a Thomson Consumer Electronics TV. (RCA, Phillips, Sylvania, or one other name I can't remember now that the used).

Am I right?

[docrobb]

It is copy protection, this sounds like the copy protection they had on tapes. If you play the title through 2 video amps then it clicks in, the logic was that if you are watching the movie it goes from VCR/DVD (1 Video Amp) to TV, if you are trying to tape it it goes from VCR/DVD (1 vieo amp) to VCR/DVD (2nd Video amp). The result is a messed up sync signal. you can get rid of it by buying a gizmo that reinjects a stable sync.

[johns0]

Buy a new tv,i did.

[Zisguy1]

When I was a kid we had a B&W TV that was causing problems, so my father threw it out a 2nd story window... that solved the problem.

P.S. kids don't try this at home. Particularly if your parents are standing on the ground underneath the window.

[Noahtuck]

its your tv - not the dvd ... turn off your automatic gain control ..

sure helps when you give ALL the information instead of guessing ...

then it is not just fading in and out but the colors are changing also ... if macrovision ..


next time -- give all the info the first time please

JMPO, From personal experiance.....

First thing i thought when reading the start of this post was because he was running it through his rec., because i have had the same problem when running a stock standalone dvd player through anyone of my many home theatre rec.
Because of the copy protection on dvd's & in the dvd players themselves....
Just like running it through a vcr...... unless you have the macrovision hack or other means to bypass the copy protections, whatever they may be.....
But then again.... things are way to simple for me and i don't like to make them too difficult or more complicated than they need to be

[sapiendut]

Watching DVD on a 20 year-old TV is like watching VHS recorded in EP mode on a 100" HD diplay. You won't see anything but a big honking mess.

Get a new TV, you can get 27" with component input for less than $400.